We spent Saturday in Bangalore, where we met with leaders of two networks in the state of Karnataka.

Bangalore
Pop. 9 Million
Growing 10,000 people per day
More than 1,000 churches
Over 300 organizations

Karnataka
Pop. 52.7 Million
2 percent Christian
Only .6% are indigineous Katnatakan Christian (they have their own dialect)

The first meeting was with John and his wife Grace.

Network facts:
61 churches: 40 are self reliant and can plant another church.
Orissa
Tamil Nadu
Kartnataka
140 fulltime workers - 100 of those have come through evagelism.
4,000 members in churches
60% rural churches

From the beginning most of the churches have been started through the believers.
-Evangelistic activity of lay people
-Teaching new believers
-Organizing a church.
No systematic training/planning.

Today their goal is to see a church in every district of the 3 states where they are located. 75 more churches in the next 7 years.
To do this they have asked all 61 churches to adopt one district next to them. Each church will work through 4 phases:
1) Pray for that district.
2) Go and build relationships, prayer walk, investigate.
3) Start an evangelistic work based off phase 2.
4) Train new believers and organize the church.

Biggest obstacles:
- Anti Christian groups are strong in Karnataka/Orissa
- Caste system (in villages)- places of meeting disputed in being opened to other castes.

Our second meeting was with Samuel. In 1978 after many years of working in Operation Mobization Samuel left to join a movement in Mumbai. (On Thursday we will be meeting with the founder of that movement.) After several years of looking for his place, Samuel moved to Karnataka state to begin a new work. Today he oversees 75 churches in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. His network is one of the many networks that make up the Mumbai movement. In his words these networks are "independent but interdependent on each other."

In regards to the 75 churches that he has been a part of planting all have 3 common factors, they are:
Self starting
Self supporting
Self governing

We spoke at length with Samuel about the numbers and quality of churches that have been planted in India. There was questioning over the numbers being propogated around the West, and concern that the Indian church be focused on the quality of churches/believers & leadership needed to reach their nation. Samuel does say that God is doing something special in this time, and the receptivity to the Gospel, despite persecution, is more today than 20 years ago. Samuel sees the major obstacles to be quality leaders and again the difficulties of the caste system in village areas. Persecution he see's as a refinement and fire on the spreading of the church.

Other photos:
Church service at HBI today

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Location:HBI Headquarters, Chennai